Birds of Prey Gets Chris Messina as Batman Villain Victor Zsasz

Chris Messina has been cast as the villainous Victor Zsasz in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Additionally, Ali Wong and Robert Catrini have been added to the cast. Wong is reportedly playing an associate of Rosie Perez's Renee Montoya character as a member of the Gotham law enforcement. Catrini's role has yet to be revealed at this time, but casting is in full swing as production aims to begin in early 2019.

Ewan McGregor is playing Black Mask, who will be the main villain in Birds of Prey, but Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz, another Batman villain, will be working with Black Mask in the movie as well. The character is known to carve his victim tally marks into his own flesh and he's a pretty creepy dude. Zsasz was first introduced in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 in June 1992. The character collected a large inheritance and later lost it all to the Penguin, which resulted in Zsasz becoming suicidal. However, after killing a homeless man, he becomes addicted to killing and leaves his victims in life-like poses.

Anthony Carrigan plays Victor Zsasz on Fox's Gotham series, which recently wrapped shooting its 100th and final episode. Carrigan responded to the news of Chris Messina's Birds of Prey casting on social media, noting that he was happy for the actor. He said, "I know Chris will absolutely kill it (then add a tally, naturally) Have fun dude!" For some, it will be hard to see another actor take on the role since Carrigan has done such an awesome job as Zsasz on Gotham over the years.

Batman fans will surely be excited to see both Black Mask and Victor Zsasz introduced on the big screen in Birds of Prey. Fans have been hungry to see Margot Robbie back as Harley Quinn since 2016's Suicide Squad, so the movie will likely be pretty big out of the gate for that reason alone. In addition to Robbie, the movie also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress while Jurnee Smollett-Bell portrays Black Canary. The movie was first talked about before Suicide Squad hit theaters, so it's nice to finally see some forward momentum for the project.

Birds of Prey will be released in theaters on February 7th, 2020. It will be the next movie that fans see Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn with Suicide Squad 2, which will be directed by Gavin O'Connor, also in development. However, it looks like Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's Harley Quinn Vs The Joker movie and David Ayer's Gotham City Sirens have been put back on the shelf for the time being. We'll just have to wait and see what happens with the rest of those projects. The Chris Messina casting as Victor Zsasz in Birds of Prey was first reported by Deadline.